The dream is the same for every Minor League baseball player: Learn the craft, hone the skills and make the jump to the Major Leagues, leaving behind the smaller, antiquated, hometown feel of the Minor League ballpark for the modern, awe-inspiring cathedrals of The Show. But on the rarest of occasions in baseball history, it’s […]
Metrodome recycling, affiliation news, attendance records and positioning for 2015 were the leading stories of the past week on Ballpark Digest, as measured by page views. We hit a few milestones this past week as well: we surpassed 10 million page views for the year, for the third year in a row. The difference: in […]
Another creative reuse for a remnant of the Metrodome: the infamous right-field baggie is now part of a new Duluth Pack line of bags, to be unveiled tomorrow at the 2014 Minnesota State Fair. As you’ll recall, the blue fabric wall was installed prior to the Metrodome’s second season in 1983 to limit the number […]
Development on a new Minnesota Vikings (NFL) stadium that will also host University of Minnesota baseball has taken an interesting turn: the city wants special bird-friendly glass to be installed, at a cost of $1.1 million. As a replacement for the Metrodome, the new Vikings stadium will feature a baseball configuration and expected to be […]
It was once envisioned as a home for independent baseball once the NFL and NBA moved out, but today the Silverdome is in sad shape, with its contents to be auctioned. The Silverdome opened in 1975 with a ten-acre Teflon roof supported by forced air, a model also used in the Metrodome and B.C. Place. […]
It took years to build and mere weeks to take down: Demolition of the Metrodome has proceeded to the point that for all intents and purposes the former home of the Minnesota Twins is no more. Officials with the Minnesota Vikings and the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority say that most of the Metrodome has been […]
The deflating of the Metrodome roof happened this morning with no issues, and the demolition of the former Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Golden Gophers ballpark will continue this week. You can see a time-lapse version of the roof-deflation video, which condenses a 35-minute process down to two minutes: The process was pretty low-tech: the electricity […]
The seats are gone and the storage rooms cleaned, which means electricity to the Metrodome will be cut off Saturday, directly leading to the roof deflating. The Metrodome roof, a two-play synthetic-cloth covering, is kept up by air pressure. When the electricity is cut off, the roof will deflate — slowly. Even if all the […]
A legal battle over bonding for a new Minnesota Vikings stadium, which will also host college and high-school baseball, reached the Minnesota Supreme Court. Three Minneapolis residents — none of them a lawyer — filed suit to stop the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority from selling bonds to build the new stadium, set to open in 2016. […]
Two former Major League Baseball venues have dates with the wrecking ball early next year, as the Metrodome and Candlestick Park are set to come down after the 2013 NFL season. The San Francisco Giants played at Candlestick Park between 1960 and 2000. It was originally built for baseball, with a nice open design. It […]
Voters and politicians are having second thoughts about a new Minnesota Vikings stadium that will also house early-season Golden Gopher baseball, as the funding plan looks to have serious issues. A review of Wilf family finances in the face of a big lawsuit loss ($84.5 million in damages) has delayed the final negotiation of a […]
The original roof of the Metrodome — the one that spectacularly collapsed three years ago — will see new life as duffel bags as Duluth Pack has prepped products based on the Teflon-coated fiberglass. As you’ll remember, the Metrodome roof collapsed in 2010 under the heavy weight of melting snow. A replacement roof was brought […]
A new Minnesota Vikings stadium that would also house University of Minnesota baseball games is on hold while the state investigates the finances of team owner Zygi Wilf and family. The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority has retained outside counsel to look more closely into the Wilf family finances after a New Jersey Superior Court judge […]
